A variety of mobile-based services exist in the industry for users and businesses to: obtain information, perform transactions, watch entertainment, and socialize with business associates, friends, and family members.
Enterprises have been leveraging the environment to provide a variety of automated services to consumers. One recent development, is a frictionless store in which a consumer can enter a store and shop without ever accessing any electronic device and without interacting with a clerk to checkout of the store with purchased items.
One problem with the frictionless store is when a consumer is associated with a group and members of that group are shopping with the consumer. The existing technology is challenged when distinguishing between what items taken by members of the group belong to a single member of the group (even when items are taken by multiple members) and what items belong to a specific individual independent of the group.
The problem becomes conflated at or near the physical entrance of the store where consumers are first identified. The entrance often becomes congested with people coming into the store or leaving the store, which makes it difficult to distinguish between individuals within a group and groups associated with a single individual.
To date, the issue has been alleviated by forcing individuals to identify themselves or group affiliation through some electronic manual interaction with the individuals as they enter or check-in to a frictionless store. However, this defeats the very purposes of the frictionless store in that it requires affirmative actions to be taken by consumers to distinguish individuals from groups.